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Hajj Starts In Saudi Arabia; Women Votes Effecting The Election; Government Sues Bank Of America; Government Sues Bank of America; Fighting For 109 Swing Counties; What The Candidates Didn't Say; Jerry Sandusky under Evaluation; Biden Stumps in Marion, Ohio; Do Candidates' Newspaper Endorsements Matter Anymore; Meningitis Deaths Reach 23

Aired October 24, 2012 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: -- and are physically able to must make the journey at least once in their lifetime. So, the rituals, you might have seen before. The huge crowds make a circular procession around the Kaaba, the (INAUDIBLE) structure that is the most sacred shrine in Islam. They throw stones at three pillars just outside the city. It represents stoning the devil.

Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux, and I want to get right to it here. Crunch time in the presidential race just 13 days to go. President Obama, Mitt Romney in the final frantic push for votes. Polls have tightened in several crucial states. National polling showing the race dead even. The President is now on a swing through Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada. Today, Romney campaigns in Nevada this afternoon, Iowa tonight. This look, this hour, we're looking at the role of the gender gap. Whether newspaper endorsements as well even matter. We're also going to have a report from Ali Velshi and contributor John Avlon. They -- they're on the road talking with voters in the battleground state of Florida.

Abortion again back in the headline today after a comment by Republican Senate candidate. Today, he is defending his remarks. Here is what Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said in the debate last night while explaining his position on abortion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD MOURDOCK (R), INDIANA SENATE CANDIDATE: I believe that life begins at conception. The only exception I have for -- to have an abortion is in that case of the life of the mother. I just -- I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is a gift from god, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something that god intended to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, today, in a news conference, he accused political opponents of distorting what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOURDOCK: For those who want to kind of twist the comments and to use them for partisan political gain, you know, I think that's what's wrong with Washington these days. You know, I spoke from my heart. I spoke with my principle. I spoke from my faith. And if others wish to try to turn those words and somehow use them against me, again, that's what's wrong with Washington today. It is win at any cost. Let's make up issues when we can't find real ones. Let's twist. Let's distort. Let's deceive. And I think that's a sad process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I want to bring in our Dana Bash here. And, Dana, first of all, before we get to Mitt Romney, is there anything in the comments that he said today as opposed what he said previously that was different? Does it sound like he is saying the same thing?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, in that he apologized. He said he was sorry. He said he regrets it. If the comments that he made were misconstrued by anybody to make it sound like he in any way thinks that rape is OK, and that rape is something that would be condoned by god. And so, he was urged to do that publicly and privately, Suzanne, by top Republican officials, and did he that this morning.

MALVEAUX: All right. So, this is another controversial comment about rape and abortion. This is somebody that Mitt Romney endorsed. How do they respond today to this?

BASH: Oh, life is about timing, and this is not great timing for Mitt Romney. We are in -- 13 days away from election day. They are pushing so hard to get any undecided voters out there, and they tend to be more women than men, to come his way. And when I say, bad timing, it's also because Romney just recently cut an ad for Mourdock, and I think you can see a little clip of it right here. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- to balance the budget and make government more accountable. As senator, Richard will be the 51st vote to repeal and replace government run health care. Richard will help stop the liberal Reid-Pelosi agenda.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, that's airing in Indiana right now where, actually, it's not even a contest on the presidential level. Mitt Romney is doing so well that his support could potentially help Mourdock. One of the things the Democrats were pounding away at all night and morning is whether or not Romney would ask the Mourdock campaign to pull that ad. The answer, we're told, is no, and he is also not pulling his support from Mourdock. But he is making very clear that he does not agree with Mourdock on the issue of abortion, because Romney has always said, or at least in recent years, that he doesn't approve of abortion, but does -- he is OK with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. MALVEAUX: So, Dana, this might not affect Mitt Romney and his campaign, but it might affect the balance of power if you look at the control of the Senate. How important is Mourdock's race?

BASH: Every single race that is tight, if you have last minute surprise or a hiccup or problem, certainly it could affect it. And this particular race, Suzanne, you know, was held -- this seat was held for 30 years by Richard Luger, and Mourdock unseated him in a primary in the spring, and so now he is running against a Democratic -- a conservative Democrat, Joe Donnelly. It is neck and neck. Republicans are hoping that this is one that they don't have to worry about, but it's been -- it's been tough going for them. And so, it's unclear whether or not this is going to shake this up in favor of the Democrat or Republican. Mourdock in his press conference this morning made the case that he thinks that this could actually help him, because the state of Indiana is so conservative that if he talks about this and then, you know, doubles down on the fact that he very much supports -- very much is against abortion, --

MALVEAUX: Right.

BASH: -- even in the case of rape because --

MALVEAUX: Sure.

BASH: -- that's his conviction and his faith, that that might help with voters.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dana, thank you for the big picture and the micro -- the micro and the macro picture, the small picture as well. Thanks, appreciate it.

Issues like abortion, of course, highlighting the role that this gender gap is playing in the presidential race, and it is a big gap. But joining us to talk about that, Republican strategist Ana Navarro and Sandra Fluke who made headlines, of course, with her testimony and support of contraception coverage for women. Good to see you both. Let's, first of all, take a look at the latest polls. This shows President Obama leading among women by nine points. Mitt Romney among men by 10 points. Now, according to the "New York times," Nate Silver, as a matter of fact, the gender split is really historic when you look at this, so if only women voted, President Obama, he'd win by a landslide. If only men voted, Romney would have a huge advantage.

So, I want to start off with you, Ana, first of all. Social issues like abortion, when you hear Mourdock, and you hear some of the folks talking about abortion, how does that play? How does that actually play into the campaign and specifically the kind of support that Mitt Romney is trying to generate from female voters?

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, I think it plays both ways depending on your views. I think we can all agree that men and women have different views on social issues, including abortion. I've got to tell you, Suzanne, when I first read that quote yesterday, and I read it, I cringed tremendously, and I thought I can't believe this is happening, and I can't believe this is happening again. Today, when I see it in context, when I hear his context and understand that what Richard Mourdock was referring to was his strongly held belief that is shared by many Americans that life begins -- that god gives life at inception -- you know, I don't like his comments. I think they were incredibly poorly worded, but I do think that there are many Americans that have that held belief that that is a gift from god, a life -- any life is a gift from God, and you know, he could have worded it differently. But I do think that, you know, we have to put this all in context. Talk about every other issue, but, nonetheless, it's important.

MALVEAUX: Sandra, I want to bring you into the conversation, because you and I had a chance to speak at the DNC, the convention there, and you have become -- you really have been thrust into the spotlight, if you will, because of your position on contraception and women having the right to freely use it and to have it be partially funded by the government. Does it frustrate you at all? Do you think that people are oversimplifying what concerns women? I mean, abortion, contraception, that's one thing, but there are a whole host of other issues. Do you think the whole thing has been oversimplified?

SANDRA FLUKE: No, I don't think it has. I think President Obama has been talking about a whole host of issues that women are concerned about from equal pay to violence against women to women's reproductive health, and that's -- those are issues that are important to women, so that's part of what they're concerned about. But on these comments specifically, I want to underline that I still think that they're cringe-worthy, because regardless of the fact that many Americans may have differing views on their own personal decisions about abortion, 75 percent of the country believes that we should not be legislating that a woman who is a victim of rape cannot have access to the abortion care she needs. But that's the position that's taken by Mr. Luger, that's been taken by many Republican members of the House of Representatives, including Mr. Ryan and that Mr. Romney has endorsed in the past.

MALVEAUX: Ana, explain to us here because both of you are agreeing when it comes to the cringe factor of some of these comments that people have made. How does this play out in terms of Mitt Romney being able to win support, the support that he does need to have from female voters less than two weeks away.

FLUKE: Well, I think what this shows --

NAVARRO: I think it would be very --

FLUKE: -- female voters is that when it comes to electing Mr. Romney, they're also endorsing his ability to nominate folks to the Supreme Court. And he has committed that he would nominate justices who would overturn Roe V. Wade. He has endorsed this Republican Senate candidate when the Senate has been the one backstop, standing between the House and the President's desk on legislation like this over the years. So, that's something that women and men voters as well are seeing as a whole package, when we're seeing these extreme statements from candidates.

MALVEAUX: Ana, jump in here, if you will. NAVARRO: Yes. Look, I think part of what we're seeing, Suzanne, is that the gap, that gender gap that was such a great tool for Barack Obama has narrowed tremendously since the first debate. It used to be at double digits, now it's down to single digits. And it's something that worries the Obama campaign, and that's why I think you see this effort of trying to tie Mitt Romney to these controversial comments by Richard Mourdock. They were not made by Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney has said, and said from the get go, that he does not support those comments, that he does not agree that they were poorly stated.

But at the same time, we all understand that we put him in context, and, you know, let's be clear about this. Richard Mourdock was not saying that rape is what God intends. He was talking about the life that results of that. We can disagree with it, but they are two completely different concepts. I don't think this is going to play out as something that's going to affect Governor Romney, because, frankly, he didn't say it. There's 535 members of Congress. If both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were held responsible for every poorly worded thing that each one of them said, I'm telling you, we wouldn't elect anybody in this country.

MALVEAUX: All right. We're going to have to leave it there. Ana and Sandra, good to see you both, and, of course, we'll continue this debate and this discussion at another time. Clearly, women vote -- female vote is going to be extremely important this go round, could be historic when it comes to the gender gap. There's what we're working on for this hour.

(voice-over): Battleground, Florida, the polls are neck and neck, and the stakes could not be higher. We'll show you which counties could turn the tables. Then, the editorial boards are taking sides. But in the age of the Internet, do newspaper endorsements even matter anymore? And tense smiles, wagging fingers, we'll take a look at the body language behind the debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we're talking about the President of the United States of America, that's when the smile should disappear and when that smirk stays there, it could potentially lose those undecided voters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The federal government is going after Bank of America for a billion dollars. The government says that what the bank should pay for committing mortgage fraud against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Alison Kosik, she's live at the New York Stock Exchange. Wow. So, the feds are now suing Bank of America. Why? What is the basis for their claims? What does this mean essentially?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, the government is accusing Bank of America of deliberately generating and then selling thousands of these defective home loans to investors. These are loans which later defaulted under Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What the government says is what all this led to were these countless foreclosures.

Now, this is how the government says all this happened. It says it began in 2007 under Countrywide, which was known for its subprime mortgages, which actually Bank of America acquired the following year. Now, it happened under this mortgage program called "the hustle," of all things. The goal of this program was for high speed and volume, meaning keeping these loans moving -- moving forward through this really fast approval process, and to keep things moving fast.

What Countrywide did, the government alleges, is that Countrywide threw out some steps in quality control. Threw those quality control steps out of the window that could back up the process, including hiring inexperienced clerks.

Now, keep in mind, it was up to Countrywide, Suzanne, to make sure that these loans met certain standards before passing them on to Fannie and Freddie. That didn't happen. In fact, the government says, in some cases, some of these applicants didn't even have critical pieces of paperwork, but were approved anyway.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: So how's Bank of America responding to all this?

KOSIK: OK. So this just -- this news just broke a few minutes ago, so B of A wasn't immediately available for comment. But, you know what, lately we've been hearing more and more about these mortgage related lawsuits. Wells Fargo was hit with a similar suit two weeks ago. And I know you haven't forgotten about the robo signing scandal of 2010. So all of this is really a big unknown for banks. So as they report their earnings, we certainly are learning some are setting aside money for this litigation that is expected to continually come up, especially with the robo signing scandal still in rears (ph).

MALVEAUX: Yes.

KOSIK: And, you know, for Bank of America's part, even though a lot of this happened before the bank bought Countrywide --

MALVEAUX: Right.

KOSIK: It's still responsible for what Countrywide did.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Alison Kosik.

KOSIK: Or is alleged to have done.

MALVEAUX: OK. Thank you, Alison, appreciate it.

Thirteen days until the election. President Obama, Mitt Romney, they are on intense final sprints to the finish line. We are talking about the President kicking off a campaign blitz across six battleground states. Even joked about not getting too much sleep at a stop earlier in Davenport, Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now this is the first stop on our 48-hour fly around campaign marathon extravaganza. We're going to pull an all-nighter. No sleep. We're starting here in Iowa. We're going to Colorado. Then we're going to go to Nevada. Then we're going to Florida, Virginia, Ohio. I am going to stop in Chicago to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: At this point the election is more than just getting these swing states he's talking about. We are talking about getting counties, 109 of those counties. Our Ali Velshi and contributor John Avlon, they're hitting some of the counties on the CNN Election Express bus. Take a look.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, we are in Lakeland, Florida. It's on the I-4 corridor between the West Coast and the East Coast of Florida. This is a particularly undecided batch of land. It's relatively evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's right.

VELSHI: Registered and in terms of their intent to vote.

AVLON: Absolutely right. And the I-4 corridor is the key swing district of Florida. Appropriately enough, in the center of the state.

VELSHI: Yes.

AVLON: Switching from Tampa Bay over to Orlando. And we're right here in middle. Right here in Polk County in Lakeland, Florida. And so this is where the election gets decided.

VELSHI: Yes.

AVLON: This is where the ground game occurs. And as you said, it's evenly split. And the folks we talked to, they are open to being persuaded. They are not uninformed, undecided voters. They're engaged.

VELSHI: They're engaged. They are engaged. They've been watching. It's a small slice of people left who are undecided, but they want answer that they're not getting from the ads. They want answers that they didn't get from the debates. And they want to know that either of these candidates, whoever they believe, they understand that they want different things and they foresee different things. They want to know how they can achieve the goals that they set out.

AVLON: Yes. That's exactly right. This is not about slogans, it's about solution.

VELSHI: Yes.

AVLON: And, in particular, that frustration that many independent voters and undecideds have about hyper partisanship in Washington. They want them to stop fighting and start fixing the problems. And they don't want to have any more of this finger-pointing. They want to know how each guy, after the election, is going to start uniting the country and passing legislation that will benefit them and their pocketbook.

VELSHI: It seems simple, Suzanne, that they should be able to -- the candidates should be able to pivot to this and say, look, there's a small slice of undecided voters. They all seem to be wanting the same thing, specifics as to how we're going to achieve the goal. But they stand some danger in doing that. If the candidates pivot towards the middle, towards the independents too much, do they risk losing their base, do they risk losing their message?

AVLON: Ali, that's the danger, right? But really since Karl Rove, both parties are under this illusion that it's all about playing to the base. So they've drunk that Kool-aid.

VELSHI: Right.

AVLON: They're invested in it. But that's interesting, just yesterday, President Obama, very belatedly, putting out a new booklet of second term agenda. Selling -- it's something he said before on the campaign trail.

VELSHI: Yes, 19 pages of it. Yes.

AVLON: That's right. And he put it altogether. Now, look, I think he did it too late. The major weakness of President Obama's campaign for me, and many undecided independent voters, is a lack of focus on a second term agenda. They took steps to remedy it, with an eye towards those undecided voters, just yesterday. So they feel that pressure. They know that's who's going to decide this election.

VELSHI: But with no debates left, it's interesting to find out how these undecided voters are going to come to their decision. Many of them say they were undecided before that last debate. They remain undecided. And we're going to be going through the country figuring out what they're thinking.

You know, it's going to be different stories. Here is a lot of foreclosure, a lot of older citizens in Florida. As we move further north, you're going to find industrial and manufacturing concerns, job concerns. When we get into Virginia, it's going to be about government. And then finally, Ohio.

AVLON: Ohio. And it's a fascinating story. Manufacturing has left there for decades. Starting to come back to the local economy.

VELSHI: Yes.

AVLON: In part because of the auto industry. But here's a state, no Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio.

VELSHI: All right, so check in with us tomorrow, Suzanne. Back to you.

MALVEAUX: All right. Got to love those guys.

Used to call it the power of the press, right? But in an online world, the newspapers, do they have any sway over the political process anymore? We're going to take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: President Obama and Mitt Romney, of course, having a lot to say in their final debate Monday night, but it's what they didn't say that could sway some voters. Our Gary Tuchman, he's reaching out to a body language expert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Barack Obama's and Mitt Romney's greeting. What does this tell you, Janine?

JANINE DRIVER, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: Well, we're looking for those pats here. When you, say, shake hands and you get that extra pat in, it's a pat of power. It says, good boy, good boy. And we saw four with the President. I think three or four with Mitt Romney right there.

TUCHMAN: During the debate, Janine, one thing we kept noticing the entire hour and a half was Mitt Romney kept a perpetual smile on his face while Barack Obama was talking. When Mitt Romney was talking, Obama generally looked serious. What does that tell you about his smiling?

DRIVER: We saw this same exact behavior in the first debate, Gary. And I have to say, it's unbecoming. It doesn't really work. And I'll tell you why. When we're talking about what our -- you know, what's going on in the Middle East or we're talking about threats to the United States of America, that's when the smile should disappear. And when that smirk stays there, it could potentially lose those undecided voters, hey, is this guy going to take this serious?

TUCHMAN: But isn't he just trying to be polite to his opponent by having this pleasant look on his face?

DRIVER: Listen, the President -- and I'm an undecided voter, I've got to say, so this is important for me. The President, his smiles will come and go and he'll get serious. When you have a permanent smile on, like we see right here, it comes across as fake and contrite and it will hurt your message.

TUCHMAN: A very important part of your research is what you call baseline. What a person usually does. When Barack Obama was talking about Libya, you say he did something different than his baseline. Let's look at it for a second.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Is to keep the American people safe. And that's what we've done over the last four years.

TUCHMAN: You're saying that he's tilting his head. What does that mean? DRIVER: He's tilting his head. I mean, look at the difference in white space over here versus over here. We have all this white space. His head is tilted at this diagonal. And this is really important for us. Why? When you give an important message, your head should be on straight. It should be on -- literally in the middle of your shoulders. She or he has a good head on his shoulders.

TUCHMAN: While both men were talking about Russia, you noticed something about Mitt Romney's face. Tell me.

DRIVER: I want you to look at -- right there. His nose and his mouth. His nose just wrinkled. There it is. The nose and the lip wrinkled together. This is what's called a micro-expression of disgust, Gary. It happened in a fifteenth of a second. We have seven emotions that show up on our face. They're called universal emotions. Happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, contempt, and disgust. When it comes to body language or meeting people, the only scientific belief and proven gestures are these seven universal emotions. Doesn't matter if you're a man, a woman. Doesn't matter if you're 77 or seven. It doesn't matter if you're born in Russia or Chicago. They will show up exactly on our face the same exact way. That is disgust. What we don't know is what does it mean? Where is the catalyst?

TUCHMAN: When Mitt Romney was talking about Egypt, you feel that Barack Obama did something notable with his face.

DRIVER: He does. The President literally lifts his chin back up, which is his baseline move. Throughout most of the debate, his head's tilted. When he begins listening, what's happening is Mitt Romney says, I agreed with the President. Boom. Look at that chin. Up it comes. This is the President's baseline. In this moment, he is not a man running for president, he is the President.

TUCHMAN: We've learned to watch the hellos and the good-byes very closely when it comes to body language in debates. Something very interesting, though, happened at the end of this debate when it was all over and when they got up. Barack Obama made a hand motion. Tell me about that.

DRIVER: Right here. Right here. There it is. That hand gesture is -- he's telling Mitt Romney, I'll meet you up front. I'll meet you up front.

TUCHMAN: So he pointed -- he pointed to up front.

DRIVER: Yes, he literally pointed to Mitt Romney and says, I'll meet you up front.

TUCHMAN: What does that mean?

DRIVER: So what this means is, in sales, when I teach to sales people, this is called leading. The President is saying, I'm currently still the power position here. I'm the one calling the shots. I'll meet you up front.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MALVEAUX: Vice President Joe Biden out on the campaign trail, the critical state of Ohio. A swing state. He's about to speak in Marion. We're going to listen in as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Jerry Sandusky getting a complete mental and physical evaluation at a state prison in Pennsylvania. Now, the convicted child molester, he was transferred to the facility from a county prison to take those exams. He is not going to be there for long, though.

Joining us from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sara Ganim, a CNN contributor, reporter with "The Patriot News" and Pulitzer Prize winner for breaking the Sandusky story.

Sara, thanks for joining us.

I want to remind our viewers, first of all, what this is all about. This is a former coach. He was convicted in June, sexually abusing 10 boys while he was the assistant coach at Penn State. He was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars.

They're now evaluating him at this place to figure out where he is going to be placed permanently. What are they looking for?

SARA GANIM, REPORTER, THE PATRIOT NEWS & CNN CONTRIBUTOR: This is actually really standard procedure. And they'll say things into consideration like the things that he was convicted of, what kind of crimes they were, were they violent crimes? Murders tend to go to different facilities. Is he a security threat? What level of the security threat might he be? They'll take into consideration his age. And quite frankly, that might be the biggest factor in this decision because inmates in Pennsylvania who are over 65, who are considered elderly, typically go to a certain facility with other elderly inmates. The idea being that they don't want someone who is 68, 69 years old and will be spending the rest of his life there into his 90s being in the same facility with a 25-year-old.

MALVEAUX: And what has been a condition for him so far where he has stayed now?

GANIM: He is in the county jail. He has been in the county jail, actually, for several weeks -- for several months since his conviction, and he just recently this week transferred to the state facility where he is being evaluated. That's actually near here, in Harrisburg. It's just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and that's where he will be for his evaluation before they determine which state facility he'll go to.

MALVEAUX: And we know that child molesters, certainly no love for them in prisons as well. Is he in any danger? Has he been given special treatment for protection or anything like that? Do we know?

GANIM: The best guess I have on that, actually, comes from himself and his attorneys, and they say that he really didn't get any harassment or heckling when he was in county jail in Center County, but we don't know. He has really only been in these state facilities for a very short amount of time, and I don't have any indication that he is being harassed there.

MALVEAUX: All right. Sara Ganim, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

I want to go directly to Vice President Biden who is on the trail in Ohio, as you know, a critical swing state. He is speaking in Marion. Let's listen in.

(LAUGHTER)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we're led by Vietnam veteran here.

Good to see you, man. Welcome home.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Welcome. Welcome home.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Took a long while, didn't it? Took a long while. Thank you for your service.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Look, folks, I -- you know, I think that there's no better group of Americans we could put the presidency in the hands of in deciding the people of this great state.

You know, the President has now held his third debate with Governor Romney, and I had my one debate with Congressman Ryan.

(CHEERING)

BIDEN: My only regret is we didn't have three.

(LAUGHTER)

Folks, look, look, as the President pointed out, and it's become clear after these four debates that the President has exposed -- that these debates have exposed that Governor Romney and Paul Ryan, as the President said, have a foreign policy from out the '80s. The Cold War is over.

(SHOUTING)

BIDEN: Social policy out of the '50s, and the President said an economic policy out of the '20s.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Look, folks, the difference in our policies now are profound, and they're clear differences. But more important than that is sort of the value set that underlies the policies we support are really very different. Both of these men are good men. They're both good men. They're good fathers, good husbands. They're descent men. But they have a different value set. They come at this from a different direction than we do. And that's why in the last debate, you saw Governor Romney rushing to agree with President Obama on Iraq -- (CHEERING)

BIDEN: -- Afghanistan --

(CHEERING)

BIDEN: -- Syria.

(CHEERING)

BIDEN: And disavowing the foreign policy he has been running on for the past two years. I mean, literally. I don't know whether you saw Jon Stewart. Did you see Jon Stewart's show?

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: He was finishing his sentences. I mean, it is really amazing. You know, I don't know what happened. We call that conversion where I come from.

(LAUGHTER)

But, you know, and beyond that, the last debate, I think they're getting the idea where the American people aren't much in sync with their ideas. The last debate, Governor Romney even laid out how he was for rescuing the automobile industry. I bet you all didn't know that, did you? I tell you what, I didn't know that either.

(SHOUTING)

BIDEN: This is the same guy -- let Detroit go bankrupt. And he's saying, you did exactly what I would have done, Mr. President.

(LAUGHTER)

I wonder what all those conservative folks are thinking about him right now. All those guys on the far right who were so happy that there was going to be a different kind of -- a different kind of campaign this time. Half the time, this last debate, I didn't know whether or not Governor Romney was there to debate Barack Obama or endorse Barack Obama.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: I wasn't sure.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: I'm serious. I'm serious.

But, Governor, you can't run from the truth. You can't run from the record. you can't run from your policies. You can't run from your position, for example, on women's rights. Romney and Ryan have made it very clear. They made it very clear.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: They don't believe a woman has a right to control her body. They're willing to impose their private views on the public. They want -- on women's health. They want to give power back to the insurance companies. Some of you women know that, in fact, you get charged 50 percent more for the same policy a man gets charged for. The same policy. But under the Obama -- what we call Obama-care these days, they're not allowed to do that anymore. And right now you know, if a woman is pregnant, she goes to get insurance, pregnancy is, quote, "a preexisting condition." No.

(LAUGHTER)

By the way, that's not a joke. That's -- that is not a joke. But we say you can't do that anymore. Well, these guys want to turn around and give it back to the insurance companies. These guys, you know -- you know, folks, they -- you know, when Romney talked about equal pay -- remember he got asked that question the debate before last? Do you support equal pay? He started talking about binders.

(LAUGHTER)

He started talking about binders full of women that he -- whoa, eureka.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: It was amazing. And he never did -- he never did answer the question about equal pay for equal work. But that shouldn't surprise you because his chief advisor says he didn't support even the Lily Ledbetter law. And Congressman Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter law. Ladies and gentlemen, you know, it's pretty amazing to me. And now, you know, I want to make one thing clear to you so nobody misunderstands, because we don't want to fly under any false flags here. Barack Obama and I, from the day we joined forces, we are absolutely clear to everyone, and you should be clear, that we're going to make sure one of our central missions is to make sure my daughter, his daughters, my four granddaughters have every single opportunity my sons have.

(CHEERING)

BIDEN: Every --

MALVEAUX: That's the vice president out of Marion, Ohio, a very important swing state. The vice president attacking Mitt Romney over issues concerning women, a very key voting bloc this go around.

And we used to call it the power of the press, right? But in an on- line world, do the newspapers, do they have any sway really over the political process anymore? We're going to take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: President Obama today agreed to allow "The Des Moines Register," a newspaper, to publish an interview he gave to the editorial board. This came after the paper blasted him in an op-ed blog post for trying to keep this conversation off the record. Senator Rick Greene wrote, and I'm quoting, "What the President shared with us this morning, and the manner, depth, the quality of his presentation, would have been well received not only by his base but also undecideds."

The newspaper is preparing to endorse a presidential candidate in the next couple of days. The President has already picked up a couple of big endorsements. We're talking about one in Ohio. Last week, the influential paper, it was "The Cleveland Plain Dealer," announced it would support the President. "Los Angeles Times," "Denver Post," "Salt Lake Tribune" also endorsing the President. For Mitt Romney on his side, endorsement, "The Columbus Dispatch," "The Pittsburgh Tribune," and "The Orlando Sentinel."

So do they even matter? The newspapers, on the decline, circulation slipping dramatically, lowest level in decades.

Let's bring in Howard Kurtz to talk about it, "Newsweek," "Daily Beast," Washington bureau chief, and host of "Reliable Sources" here on CNN.

You have lots of accolades there, Howie.

HOWARD KURTZ, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, NEWSWEEK-DAILY BEAST & HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Let's, first of all, start off with what happened in Iowa, the controversy over the paper. And first, he says no, it's off the record, and got a lot of pushback. Now he says OK. They published the interview. He was blasted by the Romney campaign as well. Why, in the first place, do you think he said, no, I want it off the record, and why did he change his mind?

KURTZ: Well, the second part is easy, Suzanne. He changed his mind because the newspaper embarrassed the White House and the Obama campaign into agreeing this had to be made public. Why on earth would he want this issue-oriented discussion, which he said the same thing, he said, should not be published, it was off the record. (VIDEO PROBLEM) I can't figure out (VIDEO PROBLEM).

MALVEAUX: And one of the things that's going to happen is, of course, they're going to try to -- they're going to decide which one they're going to endorse. Does it make any difference at all? Are people actually listening, watching, reading what you have from this self- appointed board and anonymous editorials?

KURTZ: In local elections, newspaper endorsements matter a lot. In a primary or caucus -- in the Iowa caucuses, for example, "The Des Moines Register" endorsement is worth its weight in gold. You have activists turning out and taking a lot of -- taking your cues from the newspaper that follows -- in a national general election, I don't think so. It's like chicken soup. It doesn't hurt. Whoever gets the announcement will tout it. The endorsement, I should say, will tout it, will try to, you know, show a sense of momentum. But the endorsements in this country are going -- by newspapers are going to split pretty evenly, and I don't think it carries that much weight on November 6th.

MALVEAUX: According to "The Washington Post" blogs here, you have newspapers endorsing Obama. They've got three million subscribers. For Romney, it's 2.1 million subscribers. Does that tell us anything at all?

KURTZ: Well, what it tells us is that, you know, if you look 30 years ago, when newspapers were the prime source of information for a lot of folks, then the endorsement mattered more. Now we're in an age where, you know, Barack Obama has, I think, 27 or it's up to 30 million followers or fans on Facebook. Romney has nine million or 10 million. They play on Twitter. There are so many more ways for these campaigns to communicate on-line with their supporters, trying to get their message out, trying to get voters registered, and trying to get people to the polls. And a newspaper endorsement, frankly, seems a little old-fashioned. I understand why the papers do it. They editorialize every day of the year. They certainly don't want to duck the big decision every four years, but I don't think it packs much punch anymore.

MALVEAUX: Is there anything that the newspapers could be doing to be more influential in making those kinds of endorsements?

KURTZ: Well, I think when newspapers still have a lot of impact is in their news coverage. We sit here in New York or Washington or Atlanta and we have this sort of national view. But if you are in Iowa, chances are you are not only watching local TV and seeing all those ads because you're in a swing state, you're reading "The Des Moines Register" or some of the other papers. And there, what stories get put on the front page, how Romney and Obama are covered, how controversies come up, how the debates are covered, I think that is actually influential, and tends to influence -- there's a ripple effect that goes out to the blogs and cable television and the like. But the one day when the -- as you say, the anonymous editors say here is our choice of the President of the United States, I think people will consider the argument.

MALVEAUX: OK.

KURTZ: I don't think it moves a lot of votes.

MALVEAUX: Howard, good to see you, as always. Thanks. We're running out of time. We've got to let you go.

11 new cases of meningitis tied to those tainted drugs from a company that is outside of Austin. We're going to get the very latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Deadly meningitis outbreak is spreading now, claiming 23 lives. 308 people now have gotten sick from the medications produced at just one Massachusetts compounding pharmacy. 11 additional cases were announced just yesterday. These were states where state health officials revealed new details about that pharmacy.

I want to bring in Elizabeth Cohen to talk about, what do we know about this place and its practices.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So these Massachusetts regulators went into the pharmacy and found -- and went through the records and found they were shipping products before doing safety testing. You're supposed to do safety testing and then ship the products. But they appeared to have skipped that step. And then they also found dirty lab equipment. They could see dirty lab equipment. And as we have reported before -- earlier, the FDA folks saw fungous growing in a vial. Like they looked at a vial of medicine and they could see something foreign in there. And when they put it under a microscope, it was fungus.

MALVEAUX: That's awful. Is anybody being held accountable? What do we know about this?

COHEN: Well, and NECC has been shut down so they no longer have a license to operate. And it was announced yesterday that three of their chief pharmacists have lost their license to practice pharmacy, so at least those three people are being held accountable.

MALVEAUX: Are there other contaminated medications? We know this is for pain, for back pain. Do we think this is a bigger problem?

COHEN: Right. Well, I spoke to the FDA about that, they said they're now testing other drugs made by NECC to see if there is fungus in those drugs too. That's their next step. And what they're doing is, government is urging hospitals and clinics to call customers, some of them, not all of them, the patients, and tell the patients you got X and you need to watch out for signs of meningitis. They have already done that for the original drug. Now they're doing it for even more drugs.

And I want to show you, this is a list of all of NECC's customers. These are the hospitals and clinics that NECC shipped to.

MALVEAUX: Wow.

COHEN: It is a long list.

MALVEAUX: That's a lot of work.

COHEN: I asked them, I said, how many people in this country have gotten NECC drugs? They don't even know that big number. That's how big this is, is they don't even know the scope of it yet.

MALVEAUX: They have got a lot of work to do.

COHEN: They certainly do. They certainly do.

MALVEAUX: Yes. COHEN: But if you go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient, you can see if your hospital or doctor is on this list. And you can say, gee, I went there a couple of weeks ago, or whatever, and see if it is on the list.

MALVEAUX: All right. Good.

COHEN: Take care.

MALVEAUX: Thank you very much, Elizabeth. Appreciate it.

He got a lot of flack for his performance at the Republican National Convention, but Hollywood star, Clint Eastwood, getting back into the political arena with a new ad for Mitt Romney. I'm going to show you right after this quick break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINT EASTWOOD, ACTOR: The people were wondering --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right, remember Clint Eastwood's famous one-sided conversation with the empty chair? Yes, Dirty Harry, back on the political stage. This time, no chair in sight. Clint Eastwood, he's starring in a new Mitt Romney support ad. It launches today in seven swing states. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EASTWOOD: We need someone who can turn it around fast, and that man is Mitt Romney. There is not much time left and the future of our country is at stake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The group behind this ad, say that Eastwood's message at the Republican convention, it was lost in this negative press of the empty chair.

Late-night comedians got their chance to weigh in on the Presidential debate. We'll hear some of the punch lines, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: 13 days and counting until Election Day. Late-night comedians still counting the jokes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN: Today, a poll found that President Obama won last night's debate among a voting bloc known as Wal-Mart moms.

(LAUGHTER)

That's true. And Mitt Romney won the debate according to the voting bloc, wouldn't be caught dead at Wal-Mart moms.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, have a great day, Suzanne.

Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Brooke Baldwin.

With just 13 days until the election, the campaign for the White House is headed west today to some of the swing states west of the Mississippi. We'll hear from Mitt Romney. He will speak to supporters in Reno, Nevada, before jetting of to Iowa for a speech tonight in Cedar Rapids. President Obama was first on the trail this morning in Davenport, Iowa.

And take a look at this. Before the day is over, he'll have appeared in four states in addition to Iowa.